“Zinti, I can walk no more,” she said.  “Either I must rest or die.”

He looked at her and saw that she spoke truth, for she was quite outworn.

“Is it so?” he said, “then we must stay here till the morning, nor do I think that you will take hurt, for Bull-Head will scarcely care to cross that pass by night.”

Suzanne shook her head and answered: 

“He will have begun to climb it at the rising of the moon.  Hear me, Zinti.  The Boer camp is close and you still have some strength left; take the child and go to it, and having gained an entrance in this way or in that tell them my plight and they will ride out and save me.”

“That is a good thought,” he said; “but, lady, I do not like to leave you alone, since here there is no place for you to hide.”

“You could not help me if you stayed, Zinti, therefore go, for the sooner you are gone, the sooner I shall be rescued.”

“I hear your command, lady,” he answered, and having given her most of the food that was left, he fastened the sleeping child upon his shoulder and walked forward up the rise.

In something less than an hour Zinti came to the camp, which was formed of unlaagered waggons and tents pitched at the foot of a koppie, along one base of which ran the river.  About fifty yards in front of the camp stood a single buck-waggon, and near to it sill glowed the embers of a cooking-fire.

“Now if I try to pass that waggon those who watch by it will shoot at me,” thought Zinti, though, indeed, he need have had no fear, for they were but camp-Kaffirs who slept soundly.

Not knowing this, however, he stood at a distance and called aloud, till at last a Hottentot crept out with a gun, and, throwing back the blanket from his head, asked who he was and what he wanted.

“I want to see the Baas of the camp,” he answered, “for my mistress, a white woman, lies exhausted upon the veldt not far away and seeks his help.”

“If you want to see the Baas,” yawned the man, “you must wait till daylight when he wakes up.”

“I cannot wait,” answered Zinti, and he made as though to pass towards the camp, whereupon the man raised his gun and covered him, saying: 

“If you go on I will shoot you, for stray Kaffir dogs are not allowed to prowl about the camp at night.”

“What then must I do?” asked Zinti.

“You can go away, or if you will you may sit by the waggon here till it is light, and then when the Boers, my masters, wake up you can tell your story, of which I believe nothing.”

So, having no choice, Zinti sat down by the waggon and waited, while the man with the gun watched him, pretending to be asleep all the while.